In the previous month of Creation Matters, we examined answers to the question “How do we know Genesis (and for that matter the entire Old Testament) has been accurately preserved to our time?” We looked at God’s promises to preserve His Word and the internal evidence witnessed to by the prophets, Jesus Christ, and the Apostle Paul for the integrity of the Old Testament.
In this article, we will unpack a very, very brief overview of the scientific and scholarly side of this question, touching on early manuscripts, scribal practice, and ancient witnesses to the O.T. text.
First, we must start with a statement that may seem shocking: we have very few Hebrew Old Testament manuscripts (whether complete or in part). While this will seem to speak against our argument that the Old Testament has been accurately preserved, a study into the details will reveal otherwise.
Norman Geisler and William Nix state, “Until the discovery of the Cairo Genezah manuscripts in 1890, only 731 Hebrew manuscripts had been published…The Cairo Codex or Codex Cairensis (C) (895 AD) is perhaps the oldest known Masoretic manuscript of the prophets…The Leningrad Codex of the Prophets or Babylonian Codex of the Latter Prophets…contains only the latter prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve [minor prophets])…The Aleppo Codex (930 AD) of the entire Old Testament is no longer complete…It was to be the primary authority of the Hebrew Bible to be published in Jerusalem, and it was corrected and punctuated by Aaron ben Asher in 930 AD.”(1)
The Lenigrad Codex is one of the rare, if not only complete manuscripts of the entire Old Testament and it dates only back to 1008 AD. When it comes to our oldest fragments, we have the Cairo Genezah fragments dating between 500-800 AD. Why so few manuscripts at such relatively late dates?
“Unlike the New Testament, which bases its textual fidelity on the multiplication of the manuscript copies, the Old Testament text owes its accuracy to the ability and reliability of the scribes who transmitted it...According to the Talmud only certain kinds of skins could be used, the size of the columns was regulated, and the ritual a scribe followed in copying a manuscript followed religious rules. If a manuscript was found to contain even one mistake, it was discarded and destroyed. This scribal formalism was responsible, at least in part, for the extreme care exercised in copying the Scriptures.”(2)
We also have other ancient variations or translations of the Old Testament which lend their own witness to its accuracy.
“The Masoretes produced an official text in A.D. 500. There are other versions that confirm the accuracy of the Masoretic Text.
1) Geisler and Nix, From God to Us, pp. 194-195.
2) Geisler and Nix, p. 197
3) www.icr.org/bible-manuscripts
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